The world loses 13 million hectares of tropical forest every year.
The latest research by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) published on May 7 said that each year the world loses up to 13 million hectares of tropical forest, an area equivalent to the size of Greece.
This annual loss of forest area contributes to 6 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, 3.6 times the amount of emissions released into the atmosphere by power plants and industrial plants in the European Union in 2010 under the Kyoto Protocol's emission credit scheme.
Every year the world loses up to 13 million hectares of tropical forest. Illustration: Internet
The United Nations has proposed a Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) Programme, which emphasizes the role of banks, insurance companies and investors in reducing carbon emissions from forests.
The world's largest banking group BNP Paribas SA with assets of $3.1 trillion and its joint venture Wildlife Works Carbon LLC have issued carbon credits from REDD projects to promote progress in reducing emissions from forests.
UNEP research has determined that forests can help keep the Earth's temperature from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius, the safe temperature increase level so that climate change does not threaten human life by the end of this century, if forest loss is reduced by 50% by 2030. To meet this goal, the world needs to invest between 17 and 33 billion USD per year to plant forests and restore lost forest areas.
The market value of forest carbon has the potential to grow to $10 trillion by 2020, while the total value of goods and services from forest ecosystems is around $5 trillion. To date, this enormous potential has largely been under-tapped.
UNEP notes that most of the world's forests are in developing countries. The use of forests as a tool for advancing an international agreement to combat climate change has gained momentum over the past two decades.
The 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico, considered creating forest carbon credits in a new international climate treaty, and the United Nations Climate Change Conference in December in Durban, South Africa, will affirm the role of forests as a leading means of reducing emissions.
According to VNA
